WOYWW 290

Well this is a very late posting because we're staying with my sister in Netherlands and have had big  difficulties getting on the Internet.
You've all seen pictures of my cleared work top before so I won't bother you with that again,  instead I have a couple of pics of what I made for a great niece, for Christmas, and now I have repetitive strain injury.

She was very popular, once Noa had opened it, she wouldn't let it out of her sight.

I hope everyone had a smashing Christmas and will visit The Christmas fairy at Stamping Ground later to see what nice Christmas desks are on show there.

So Happy new year to you all,

Chris

WOYWW 289

Well what an absent blogger I have been. Somehow Christmas once again sees me chasing my tail and I am still trying to finish cards for my craft group on Thursday and my DB is trying to use my work desk to wrap presents.

So this picture of my, not very exciting desk, has wrapping paper and card making bits all together and I used the star cutter to make tags.
This pic was taken on Tuesday evening









 However to prove that I do ocassionally make cards, I will show you the pictures I took two weeks ago to post and never found the time.

We are out again all day tomorrow, delivering Christmas presents and so I will not get any visiting done tomorrow but will try to get back to anyone who visitis and will try to do more browsing on Friday. Then we are away for two weeks, so a very

Happy Christmas to you all

and I hope I will have time to be more 'regular' in 2015.

And just to cheer you all up here is Max pretending he is tissue in the box

Bye for now

Chris

WOYWW 286

We what a busy weeK I have had, and struggling with a sore throat and cough too. However, by midday Tuesday I had finsished the urgent cards, and posted them, so it was home to clear up the chaos which was my desk.

I did start,and then I found this stamp on the desk and suddenly I was at it all over again.

I have no idea where the stamp came from but is lovely, so the last 20 cards I need for Christmas may well feature this.
Oh and those inportant cards, well this was one for my sister,

but I can't show the others because the recipient may see this page and her birthday is not until Saturday,
However this was the finished birthday card for my great niece, that you saw in development last week. Her parents were thrilled with it, I 'm not sure what her reaction was since she lives in London.

Well if you're wondering why I am sharing this part of my life, it is all about What's on you worktop Wednesday and if you go to Julia's Stamping Ground  you will be welcome to peer over the shoulders of lots of crafty folk at  lots of exciting desks.
Please leave a comment, even if it is only 'Rubbish!' and I will get back to you, but it probably won't be until latish Thursday or after the weekend as I have a very busy few days ahead.
Bless you for dropping by
Chris

WOYWW 285

Oh dear, another Wednesday means Christmas is another week closer, and I am not another week more prepared.  At this rate we will be having Christmas around the middle of February, I seem to have just run out of steam with making cards.
Anyway this is going to be a short post, desk queen Julia will be proud of me.

So this was my desk at 7pm on Tuesday before I went out, and nothing will change until this evening when I return.
In the centre you can see the makings of a birthday card for a one year old great niece and on the left a finished special Christmas card.
On the right there is the corner of my essential tool box, this contains all those things without which I simply cannot craft. Twice I have dropped it at craft club and it made such a mess. I did wonder just how much of the junk really is essential but it all got stuffed back in.
Piled up there on the window sill are more Christmas card bits including lots of die cuts from a die I  returned to Margaret yesterday.
Well I have a busy day today so will not be doing any visiting until this evening or tomorrow morning,  or even later, but I will get round some desks before next week!

Thank you so much for dropping by.

Chris

WOYWW 284

Welcome lovelies, to another Wednesday and another sharing of creative workspaces at Julia's Stamping Ground.

Now Julia, are you sitting down, because my work top is once again cleared and sterile looking, but that is because I have some special visitors staying with me, and I decided it was simply not nice

to expect them to wade through this mess to get thorugh their bedroom, not a very welcoming site for our visitors as they got to the top of the stairs.
I felt that if I was vacuuming the floor, it made sense to clear the worktop too.
And of course my visitors are with us until Thursday and then we are away until Monday, so will not have time to do any creating until then.
So Monday I can start with a nice blank canvas and get on with the Birthday cards I have to make before Christmas.

So my worktop looks like this today. Nothing very exciting to see, a new die this end, came in the post yesterday, and at the far end the basket containing the Christmas cards I have made so far. A pile of toppers and other bits on the window sill and in the middle my homemade gelli plate I made and have so far never used.

But just to prove I have done something since last week, these are  a few of the cards I have made

over the past week, only need another 25 or so.
Well now I must return to my visitors who are waiting for breakfast and then we  are all going out for the day on the boat.

Thank you for visiting my desk, I will get round to visiting a few desks  tomorrow evening but mostly not until Monday when we get home, so I will look forward to that.
Bless you all
Chris

WOYWW 283

Is it really Wednesday again, where did the week go? It really seems to be true that as you get older time goes by faster than it used to. I'm sure the EU have altered our time, they have altered everything else, so now we only have 50 seconds in a minute, and 50 minutes in an hour, although there do seem to be still 24 hours in a day, the days are just so much shorter, and as I mature (like good wine) everything takes longer to get done. Ho hum!

For those kind people who regularly visit my space, you might recollect last week, that my worktop was almost sterile as I took the picture just before bedtime on Tuesday evening. Well it didn't take long for the situation to change, by 4 pm this was this was my desk! What a mess.

And this from the other end. Actually I was trying to sort stuff out and combine two boxes of Christmas stuff. and I did throw away pass on a lot of paper and embellishments that I knew I wold never use.

However I can assure that some good work did come out of it, these are just a few of the cards I finished.

 Sorry for the crummy picture, too dark for no flash, but mirror card reflects is so much.

Right, what I'm supposed to be showing you is my desk today. Err.... it  doesn't look very different, still covered in rubbish detritus, but different detritus, but at least there are a couple of almost finished cards and the makings of another.
Why is it that I can never work tidily.

Anyway, I'm off to gate crash other people's parties, oh no, I've been invited, and so have you. So come on, join the deskosphere at Julia's. and see what great offering are on display there.
Have fun
Chris

WOYWW 282

Wednesday comes once a week, but sometimes it seems far too often when I am trying to share what is on my desk, and so often there is very litle of interest there. If you want to know why I am sharing, just take a trip to the Stamping Ground where all will be revealed.

A bit of play with distress ink, a lacey die cut and the die folder and box of distress inks. Oh and the broken necklace still at the back and the pile of Christmas bits also at the back.
Not had a lot of time to make anything over the last few days.
Daughter no.2 came to stay with grandson no. 3 and on Saturday we took them down to the boat to move it from Middlewich to Barbridge. So they stayed on the boat and I had to do the car/boat leapfrog. Doing a lock, back to the car and drive to the next lock in time to help with that one before repeating the process, and unfortunately the locks aren't always very close to roads, so it means parking the car and hiking a distance along the towpath.
Then on Sunday, daughter no.1 and grandsons 1 and 2 and hubby arrived to take the boat up the Llangollen canal for half term, so we were back down to Barbridge to hand over keys and give instructions, and travel through the first 4 locks with them and we would come home in the car we had parked just beyond the lock. Fortunately the car hop had been done with two cars so I didn't have to do any significant walking this time. At this point the plan was OH and daughter no 2 and grandson and I would come home and have a quiet day on Monday, with just a quick trip to Abakhan, to relieve the boredom. However just as we were getting ready to leave, grandson no.3 decided that he liked this boating lark and being with his cousins, whom he see very rarely, so it was agreed that he would stay with them on the boat overnight and I would drive down, another 50 miles each way, to collect him.
So Monday was 2 hours in Abakhan, very restrained craft shopping, 60 pence worth of embossed vellum, and then the 50 miles, down single track roads, to bridge 53 and back again, exhausted.
Then while I was preparing supper grandson and daughter were playing with all my craft stuff, so what you can't see on the very left of the desk, is a big pile of paper that they had played with and just left because they didn't know where to put it away.
Just before I go, I will share a couple of cards I made before the weekend.

This one was for a friend from my craft club. I wanted something in pinks and purples, her favourite colours.

And this one on the subject of Friendship for a group I belong to.










Well that's all for now, I am going to spend the rest of the day making Christmas cards, I hope.
Thanks for visiting
Chris

WOYWW 281

So here we are again, another Wednesday, another day of snooping, courtesy of the lovely  Julia at her Stamping Ground. Lots of super desks to peruse and be amazed at, and lots of sensational craft and creations to drool over, and and praise.
Then there is my desk which at 9pm on Tuesday was singularly uninspiring.

Very little has happened on  my desk since last week, a very busy few days, and the weekend away feeding the gannets, have meant I have not had much time to do much crafting.
On the left is an unfinished symphony with stamping and gems, but it has not turned out how i want it to and then in the centre I have just 'put' a few bits of card in preparation to make a pink and purple card for a friend, so somehow in my busy day today, I have to find the time to create for her birthday on Thursday.
Further to the right is a pile of magazines, I have been doing some major sorting of stuff, and these will go first to my card club, and then if there are any left over they will go to the charity shop.
Now I have a bit apology to make.From the comments I got last week, I clearly made your mouths water at the mention of the marmalade cake I was going to make for the weekend. Well I have to confess it never got made. I just decided that the strongly flavoured homemade marmalade would taste too strong for young palettes, so I chickened out and made chocolate cake. We had a brilliant weekend, in a field in the middle of nowhere, and everything I put in front of them just disappeared, very rewarding.
So I am done here, I'm off to do that creating and some visiting,
Thanks for popping by
Chris

WOYWW 280

Good morning lovely people and thank you for dropping in to see my desk. Not awfully exciting, but Margaret, John and I went to a Crafter's Companion demo at Holland Arms garden centre on Saturday, wonderful time, bought some dies and embossing folders so in between making a Ruby wedding Anniversary card for friends and lots of baking, I had abit of a play with the dies I bought.
 Not sure what else is going to happen with these three Wise Men, but time will tell.

This is the other end of the surface showing my Tool box, and Christmas box and assorted clutter that hasn't been put away since we came back from holiday.
No chance of anything else happening here until after the weekend.

Once again I have agreed, mad fool that I am, to feed 30 hungry young people for a church weekend,  so today I will be shopping, making cakes and preparing vegetables for the sausage casserole and cottage pies for them. and making carrot and butternut squash soup.
And just to make your mouths water, this is what I did on Tuesday, ginger biscuits, mixed fruit biscuits and very crumbly chocolate chip cookies, (I think the recipe was wrong, not enough flour, but they taste good) all safely buried in the freezer away from tempted fingers.
And if you are wondering why this mad woman is rambling on about her desk, this is the day those of us with a creative bent can reveal all, so visit the desker extraordinary,the good lady Julia and poke around where souls are bared and some exciting creativity is on show.
So I will strive to visit as many desks as I can and  will certainly return visits if the technology allows. Unfortunately there are some frequent visitors, on whose desks I seem completely unable to leave comments, especially those using Google+. If that is you, I do appreciate your visits, but cannot comment on your beautiful work which is disappointing.
Anyway my cooker calls, off to make Marmalade cake and then head off to Sainsbury's for veg.
Bless you for dropping by
Chris

WOYWW 279

Well I was completely out of internet access last week, up on the Llangollen canal on our new beauty, and today we still be aboard heading back to a boatyard for further repairs to the damage done by the previous owner's modifications to the plumbing, Monday 29th September had me bailing out the loo with a yoghurt pot.

I bought some craft work with me and have glued one topper on a piece red card, that is all I have managed to find time for. My Christmas cards are going to take a long time at that rate.
 

So instead of my work desk, I will show you Max enjoying a boating holiday!!!
He does seem to be happy most of the time, but would like to be free to come and go when he chooses instead of when it suits us.

And this is the new boat, she is 8 years old and 9ft longer than our previous one, making more room for comfortable seating.

Well I have locks to do, so will probably not be visiting until tomorrow when we get home, but will return your visits eventually.
Chris

WOYWW 277

Well Good Morning lovely people and if you are new to my blog and wonder what I am on about, visit Dame Julia who hosts this weekly convention of crafters.
This morning my desk is rather bare, just a few incipient Christmas cards and a birthday card lurking almost out of sight because it is for Margaret.
Also there are a few pieces of paper from a magazine, a necklace requiring mending and my trusty radio which brings me The Archers every evening and lots of daily radio programmes too.

As I said last week, my sister and her hubby were here last week, so no card making there, instead we had days out so here are some pictures of Snowdonia to share with you.

 The view over Llyn Peris.

And a stream coming down from Pen Y Pass.
We spent about an hour just rock hopping over this stream, and paddling in it, it was so warm.

Well that is all have for you today except to say that I have been encountering problems putting comments on some people's pages, especially those with Google+. Either the comment window opens then immediately closes or the comments just disappear. If anyone visits my desk, I always return the call, so is very frustrating being unable to say how much I appreciate your comments on my page or say how much I have liked yours.
I will persevere, sending messages via emails if necessary, but sometimes even that is not possible so please forgive me if I haven't commented on your page and if anyone has any idea why this is happening and what I can do about, please let me know.
Bless you for dropping in
Chris

WOYWW 276

Good morning lovelys and welcome to There's Nothing On My Worktop Wednesday.
Well apart from two mats and the guillotine,  because I have my sister and brother in law from Netherlands staying so card making is not on the menu at present.
But to show I appreciate you dropping by I'll share a pic of the  goodies I got at the show last Thursday. Margaret and I had a wonderful time, and we met up with Chris and also met Jo and her hubby and friends.

Didn't I get a lot for my money, very hard to resist some things. I had a list and only managed to buy two of the five things on it, so to make up I had to buy other things! About 10 items for every list item I failed to get!! So you can see Inka Gold and ink dusters and stamps and dies, some lovely 12" Christmas papers, (16 designs, two of each in a pack, £3.99) so Margaret and I shared the pack, ink pads, butterflies to colour, a stencil and some card.

Well these stamps were not on the list, but the Majestic stamps are so beautiful I could have bought dozens of them so three lots was very restrained and the other stamps were £1 each, I just couldn't leave them there, could I? The bird on the branch is very cute and has been used already.

Actually on my list was the Christmas decoration die, in the centre. When I was visiting some WOYWWs last week, I followed some links on someone's page and saw it and thought it was such fun, I just had to have it. The other very naughty dies just hopped of the shelves and into my hands!!!
Oh I could have spent so much more on dies, they were all so tempting.

And finally, just to show that I do craft some time, and don't just buy stuff, this is a 70th Birthday card I was asked to make for some one and intended to use one of the new dies on it and it didn't look right.

Now if you have landed on this page and wonder why I am baring all, so to speak, click on the link and visit Dame Julia who is hosting, as always on a Wednesday, a display of crafting desks from around the world.

Bless you for coming in, and I will visit all those who make a comment and I hope many more, but we are out all day in Snowdonia enjoying the views and the sunshine.
Happy WOYWW
Chris

WOYWW 275

Good Morning lovely people and thank you popping by.
Going to get myself in The Desk Mistress's good book today with a very short post.

Taken late Tuesday, and likely to remain very much the same all day Wednesday as I must do housework today before Margaret and I gallivant off to Event City in Manchester tomorrow, Thursday for a show. Will show goodies next week.
So my desk still has the the Big shot on it, the Christmas box in a bigger Christmas box and some Christmas cards, nearly finished.
I will try to do some visiting tomorrow afternoon or evening, depending on the cleaning, but otherwise I will get back to people on Friday.
Bless you for visiting and have a wonderful day.
Chris

WOYWW 274

Well today my worktop is significantly clearer than it was last week. We are going away for a long weekend and then a few days after we get back my sister is coming so I have had to do some of the clearing now and the rest before she arrives.

So all that is on my desk are two finished cards, a new home one and a new baby one, and they are both for the same couple, moved on Friday, baby born at 2.15 the next morning.
Otherwise my desk just shows the box full of Christmas card makings, the Bigshot and box of tools.
Oh I have just realised that there is a brooch on there that I made in a workshop last Thursday, all made from printed parchment, very simple but very effective.
That's me today folks, but I am certain that there are lots of more exciting desks out there, so I'm off to visit the Desk Mistress at The Stamping Ground to do some snooping. Are you coming too? There is a feast of crafty stuff to see there.
Thanks for dropping by and Happy Woyww
Chris

WOYWW 273

First of all a big THANK YOU to everyone who send hugs and sympathy last week when I was feeling very sorry for myself after my disaster with the water. I had to ditch a few more things because even when they had dried they were not salvageable.
However I have got over my pity party and but am now making Christmas cards with the stuff I stamped last time, which fortunately was nowhere near the water.
In future, before I do any more stamping, I will clear the desk of anything that doesn't need to be there and will throw the water away before I go to bed!! That's the theory, anyway.
So pictures on Tuesday evening of chaos, but productive chaos.

 I wasn't standing on the worktop for this one, just leaning over so that you could get a good view of the mess.

But here you can something actually happening! 

Christmas cards being made,  a pile on the windowsill and another one on the Big Shot so in spite of the muddle, I am achieving something,  :) I keep telling myself I will tidy it up, but I keep finding exciting things in the boxes, as I try to put things away, and they get pulled out, I play with them and then they are added to the chaos.

 And I do have plenty of storage space, but I just seem to have problems putting things away.

And this is a disgraceful pic of the floor showing the consequences of using the Bigshot, but I've been having fun, and that's what it should be about.
If you really wonder why this terribly untidy mad woman is showing her dreadful mess to the world and sounding proud of it, take yourself off to the Party the being hosted by Dame Julia and nosey around the workspaces of lots of crafty friends.
Thank you so much for visiting and have a great time snooping around lots of super desks.
Chris

WOYWW 272 a story of frustration

A very brief  and late post today. my desk is in chaos, so no picture.
I wasn't even going to post but didn't like putting 'No desk today' after comments on other people's desks.
On Sunday evening I was stamping, and trying to be organised I had actually got a bowl of water to wash used stamps, and some of you will already worked out where this is going.
Before I went to bed I fished out the stamps, put them on kitchen paper to dry and put the bowl 'safely' on the window sill.
Monday morning came and as I pulled the blinds the bowl of water came with it.
A pint of water goes a long way and paper absorbs it very quickly and ink runs and 70% of the stuff on my worktop got wet.
Some is salvageable and same has gone straight in the bin, and I am just feeling miffed with myself for being so stupid. Added to that other things going on in my life are also very frustrating, so will just be visiting and encouraging others today.
And hoping that my mojo will turn up sometime soon.
I've just editted this, it sounded as if I am feeling really sorry for myself and after sympathy, but just rather miffed with myself and not able to post anything worth while.
Thanks for visiting
Chris

WOYWW 271

Good Afternoon friends.
Well there is nothing new to show you on my worktop because we have been in the New Forest for a few days. It was OH's elderly uncle's 92 birthday and he wanted us to go down for a party, so we combined it with a few days camping and we only got home at lunchtime.
Instead I will share this little chap with you.

He was gorgeous and wandering all over the road with his mum, as were these.

but then that is the beauty of the New Forest. So many lovely animals with absolute priority everywhere. Just wonderful.
Now I will do as much visiting as I can to other desks via the lady Julia.  Come with me if you don't know what this is all about and nosey you way around lots of lovely crafty desktops.
Chris

Friday smiles

Bit late in the day, but I thought I would offer you all the two following reasons to smile.

Holiday Fruit Cake Recipe

You will need the following:

A cup of water, a cup of sugar, four large brown eggs, two cups of dried fruit, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, lemon juice, nuts, and a bottle of whiskey

Sample the whiskey and check for quality.

Take a large bowl. Check the whiskey again. To be sure it is the highest

quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whiskey is still okay. Cry find. another tup. Turn off the mixer. Beat two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the tuner. If the fired druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the whiskey and check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whiskey. Now sift the lemon uice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window. Check the whiskey again and go to bed. Hic!

And this is all about getting that summer figure that we all crave for.

Enjoy your day

Chris

WOYWW 270

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, or Good Evening friends, thanks for dropping by to snoop at my desktop and, many others, if you follow the link to The lady of the Desks, Madam Julia.
This week I have been trying re-arrange some craft stuff and my work space. So I got out the large glass mat and put it in the midde of the work desk, that way I had space on both sides of where I was working, instead of just to the right. so far so good. Then I realised that cutting tools and paper were under where I used to work and I was walking up and down much more. Right let's swap cupboard contents, but that won't work because OH put extra shelves in the corner of the far cupboard so if I move sets of drawers into that space I will block off the shelves!!  So I have done nothing more and I am left with two work mats and stuff spread over double the space and the system still doesn't work very well.

I decided to take a picture from a different angle this week, so hauled myself up on the surface, stood up and took the picture from above.
You can clearly see the two mats, the nearer one has a couple of cards on it using the same layout. I'd made the blue one first and then discovered that the recipient likes pinks and browns, so I started again anticipating that it should be more or less identical but it came out very different.
Behind those on that mat you can see a nativity stencil which I will probably play with next week.
At the far end you can see the, mostly finished Christmas cards from the stamping and embossing that was on my desk a couple of weeks ago.

 There is also some antique lace that I found in the attic when I was looking for something else today, it might end up on a card sometime, and back left is a pile of, what Margaret calls 'Unfinished Symphonies' Seems to be a never ending supply of those.

 And these are the Christmas cards, just awaiting inserts, unless I decide to do something more to them.

And this beauty was on the damson tree and I just couldn't resist taking a picture of him/her.  I suspect it is female as the Peacock butterfly female is larger and she was well over 2 1/2 inches wide.
God's beautiful creation!
Well I'm off to snoop, won't you join me?
Chris




PS, Don't usually edit after I have posted but visitors seem concerned about me climbing on the desk to take pictures, so i thought I would just post a picture to reassure you that the worktop is very solid. I was standing where the cup is.

 

Bye now